- Vatican confirms Pope Leo’s Latin America trip after post-surgery checkup
Source: SFGate
“Pope Leo XIV will proceed with his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, after doctors determined there are no medical reasons preventing him from traveling three weeks after lung cancer surgery, the Vatican confirmed Monday. The Vatican press office said the pope’s recovery continues to progress in line with favorable assessments from his medical team. It also confirmed the pope is keeping the already ambitious trip program with no announced changes. Surgeons on Oct. 13 removed a lobe where the nodule later diagnosed as malignant was located, in the first major health event of Leo’s 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Since returning to the Vatican, Leo has gradually resumed his activities while adjusting his schedule to prioritize recovery and periods of rest, the statement said.” (10/26/26)
- India: Gandhi Acquitted in Defamation Case
Source: US News & World Report
“Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, was acquitted in a defamation case by a local court on Monday, TV channels said. The acquittal comes at a time when Gandhi is leading a united opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Election Commissioner over a controversial revision of voter lists. … Gandhi was accused of calling India’s powerful Home Minister Amit Shah, who was then head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a ‘murder accused’, during a state election campaign speech in 2018.” (10/26/26)
- Chris Brown given suspended eight-month prison sentence over nightclub attack
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US singer Chris Brown has avoided jail after striking a man twice in the head with a glass tequila bottle in a London nightclub. The R&B star was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, over the attack at private members’ club Tape in Mayfair, in the early hours of 19 February 2023. Brown’s vocal coach, rapper Omololu Akinlolu, who joined the attack, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. Both men, who had pleaded guilty to affray, were also ordered to pay £1,500 costs. Judge Tony Baumgartner said Brown’s use of the glass bottle to hit the victim twice over the head ‘was plainly dangerous’, adding that the violence of the attack was ‘intense’. The sentence means Brown will not be imprisoned unless he commits another offence during the 12-month period of suspension.” (10/26/26)
- SpaceX closes $40 billion debt deal for AI chips, Elon Musk says
Source: CNBC
“SpaceX has closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy graphics processing units, or GPUs, used to power artificial intelligence systems. In a post on X on Sunday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said it had closed the financing, adding that the company was investment grade and generated revenue from its Starlink satellite internet and rocket launch businesses. In a follow-up post, he added that the financing primarily consisted of callable debt for graphics processing units, which are expected to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2027. In a regulatory filing Monday, SpaceX said it signed a binding commitment with an Apollo-managed entity for roughly $40 billion in GPU financing.” (10/26/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/spacex-closes-40-billion-debt-deal-for-ai-chips-elon-musk-.html
- Trump says he ordered frivolous DOJ lawsuit over Alaska US Senate race
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump on Friday said he told his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, kicking off what many fear could become a lengthy battle between the government and states over certifying an election where the president’s party is struggling. ‘I’m the one that said do it,’ Trump told reporters as he landed for a campaign rally in Florida. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, centers on one of the president’s longstanding complaints in the Senate race — the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan …. The second Sullivan, who is Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg, has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.” (10/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/trump-s-administration-sues-block-possible-22490957.php
- Bulgaria: Election heads to a run-off amid low voter turnout
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Bulgaria’s presidential election is heading to a run-off after polls closed with low voter turnout and no candidate passing the required threshold. Incumbent President Iliana Iotova received between 35 and 36.5 percent of votes on Sunday, according to exit polls. She will now face former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, who scored between 31 and 33.5 percent, in a second round on November 1.” (10/25/26)
- We Ain’t Seen The Half Of It … So Let’s Fix That
THANK YOU to supporter AT, whose $25 donation over the weekend brings our annual fundraiser total to (as of 5am) $1,053!
After a fantastic start, our “once and only once a year” fundraising event has slowed in pace … and that sucks, because the more quickly we reach our goal, the more quickly I stop talking about money entirely for the rest of 2026 and mostly for the first nine months of 2027.
Our goal is $5,503. Supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for half of that, but not until we raise the FIRST half from you.
We’re 38% of the way there.
Let’s hit 50% — $1375.75 — TODAY.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!
Have a great Monday!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Brazil: Lula declared presidential election winner; Bolsonaro seeks annulment
Source: Associated Press
“Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America. With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.” (10/26/26)
- Ukraine: Six Injured in Russian Strikes on Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv
Source: US News & World Report
“A Russian strike on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured four people overnight, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram on Monday. Two more were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service said on the messaging app. Also on Telegram, the Russian defence ministry said it hit a power station in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, a warehouse in the surrounding region and another power station in the Khmelnitskiy region.” (10/26/26)
- Serbia: Vucic Concedes Defeat in Parliamentary Election
Source: New York Times
“Serbia’s longtime nationalist strongman, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat Sunday in a general election held after his once-tight grip on power was weakened by nearly two years of student-led street protests. Serbia’s vote for a new Parliament came just six months after voters in neighboring Hungary rejected their own populist nationalist leader, Viktor Orban, a close ally of Mr. Vucic. The Serbian leader had adopted many of the Hungarian’s authoritarian methods — and, at the end, his gracious acceptance of defeat, as well. … Vucic, Europe’s longest-serving leader outside the former Soviet Union, has been Serbia’s dominant political figure since 2012, serving as both president and prime minister, a post he had hoped to regain after Sunday’s election.” (10/25/26)
- Appeals court resists US DoJ’s bid to immediately segregate California ballots
Source: The Hill
“A federal appeals court appeared unlikely to immediately agree to the Trump administration’s bid to segregate 20,000 California ballots it says are likely noncitizen voters, expressing skepticism at a rare Sunday hearing that a trial judge needs to move quicker. ‘I don’t see how we have jurisdiction,’ said U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett. The Justice Department (DOJ) sued California earlier this month as the state rebuffed claims that it sent ballots to 20,000 likely noncitizens as part of its universal mail voting program. The DOJ wants the ballots segregated and verified before they can be counted. It’s one of multiple lawsuits the administration has launched in recent weeks as the midterm elections quickly approach. A trial judge is set to hold a hearing on Tuesday, but the DOJ says action is needed sooner, because ballots are already being submitted.” (10/25/26)
- Venezuela: Machado returns from exile to crowds of cheering supporters
Source: CNN
“After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement. ‘In Venezuela! Together! For freedom!’ she posted on X Sunday night, alongside a video of her greeting a crowd of cheering supporters that surrounded her car, waving Venezuelan flags and blasting joyous music. … Machado had attempted to re-enter Venezuela seven times over the past few months without success, according to her advisers.” (10/25/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/25/americas/machado-returns-venezuela-latam-intl
- Canada: Conservative Party Wins First Election in Nearly a Century in British Columbia
Source: US News & World Report
“The opposition Conservative Party won an election in the Canadian province of British Columbia for the first time in nearly 100 years, promising to ramp up liquefied natural gas production, provisional results showed on Sunday. The result marks an end to nine years of power for the left-of-center New Democrats, who voiced opposition to new oil pipelines and supported a ban on tankers along the province’s northern coast. The right-leaning Conservatives won 64 of the 93 seats and the New Democrats won 27. It is the first Conservative provincial election win since 1928.” (10/25/26)
- Japan: US Marine indicted in Okinawa murder
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Prosecutors indicted a 20-year-old US Marine on Sunday on suspicion of robbing and murdering a woman in Okinawa earlier this month as the case renews anti-base sentiment among locals burdened with hosting the bulk of US military installations in Japan. Devin Ballard, who is stationed at Futenma Air Base, is charged with killing the woman by wrapping a phone cord around her neck at a hotel in Naha, the capital of the southern island prefecture, and taking her backpack containing a wallet on October 3, according to the indictment. The cause of death was suffocation, it said. … Following the incident, Okinawa Governor Genta Koja has stepped up calls on the central government to take preventive measures, with locals already angered by past crimes committed by American service members, including those against women and girls, in addition to noise and pollution issues.” (10/25/26)
- Obama slams Ramaswamy and Trump in his first rally of the midterms
Source: Politico
“In his first rally of the 2026 midterm cycle, former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, calling out the latter’s much-maligned campaign ad centering on Democrat Amy Acton’s mother. ‘There’s gotta be something inside you where you just say no office is worth stooping that low,’ Obama said of Ramaswamy’s choice to run the ad. With the midterms just over a week away, Obama was rallying in Cleveland in support of Acton and Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. Trump, Obama said, had broken a slew of promises he made on the campaign trail in 2024, ensnaring the country in an ongoing war in Iran and failing to bring down costs. Instead, ‘he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,’ the former president said, taking aim at Trump’s renovations to the executive mansion.” (10/24/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/24/obama-slams-ramaswamy-trump-ohio-rally-midterms-01134765
- Uganda: Regime to Impose 21-Day Quarantine on Returning Citizens With Congo Travel History
Source: US News & World Report
“Ugandan citizens returning to the country with a history of travel to Democratic Republic of Congo will be quarantined for 21 days, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said on Sunday as Uganda tightened Ebola precautions despite saying it remained Ebola-free. Uganda has been investigating a Nigerian Ebola case involving a woman who had travelled from Uganda. Officials said they were reviewing genomic sequencing, travel information, interactions and movements in coordination with Nigerian authorities and international partners.” (10/25/26)
- Trump stops taxing American buyers of some Canadian products
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“With an incumbent Maine US senator from his own party locked in a tight reelection battle, President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday to remove 50% tariffs on [American buyers of] some Canadian agricultural and forestry products in a move that could benefit companies from the northern state. The Republican president’s hefty tariffs on Canada have caused friction with the US neighbor to the north while creating problems for American businesses in Maine and other states that rely on certain Canadian goods. … Trump’s order exempted plywood sheets, some paper products, certain machinery and refrigeration equipment, and packing crates and boxes, as well as fresh and dried seaweed, the White House said. The changes take effect on October 30, four days before the election.” (10/23/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-expected-remove-50-tariffs-180534074.html
- Gunmen kill at least 10 villagers and loot shops in northeast Nigeria
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Unknown gunmen have raided a remote village in the northeast Nigerian state of Taraba, killing at least 10 people, looting shops and setting houses ablaze, police say. There are fears the actual death toll is much higher, with eyewitnesses speaking of 20 lives lost and a non-governmental organisation suggesting a toll of as many as 50. The gunmen reportedly swooped on the village of Binnari in the Karim Lamido area mounted on motorcycles just after midday Muslim prayers on Friday in a rampage that went on for up to four hours. Police say they are searching for other casualties in the bush but the authorities were accused by Amnesty International of failing to protect rural communities. Nigeria continues to face attacks by armed groups across several regions, including the northwest, northeast and central regions.” (10/24/26)
- Saudi Arabia: Riyadh airport resumes flights as Houthis warn it remains a target
Source: Kuwait Times [Kuwaiti state media]
“Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport resumed flights on Sunday after a two-week closure that followed strikes by Yemen’s Houthis on the Saudi capital, though the Iran-backed group warned more attacks would come. The Flightradar monitoring website showed a plane taking off from the airport early on Sunday, bound for Jeddah. … The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said early on Sunday that it had shot down drones over the Riyadh area.” (10/25/26)
- Kenya: Two rescued after Nairobi building collapse, with five still missing
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Two people have been pulled alive from the rubble of a building that collapsed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Friday, as a search continues for five still missing. Police said on Saturday that a manhunt had been launched for the building’s owner and the contractor responsible for the site. Dramatic footage shows the bottom floor of the block, thought to have been 16 or 18 stories, giving way before the rest of the building crumples, sending a plume of dust into the surrounding streets. Dozens of builders had been working on the upper floors when it collapsed, but managed to emerge largely unscathed. Those missing were thought to have been in shops at the base of the building. The incident has raised fresh concerns about construction standards and regulations in Kenya.” (10/24/26)
- Who’s Afraid of AI?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ella Dawson“The rich always have more resources at their disposal than do the poor, albeit with much more risk. But, AI, like many other inventions, gives the ordinary person the resources that previously may have been only available to the rich.” (10/26/26)
- When Money Becomes Everything
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“Willie Sutton reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Willie would’ve made a good politician. Governments became friends with banks for the same reason Willie robbed them. If a sufficiently important bank issued more receipts for money than it had locked up in its vaults, people would get suspicious and start to pull their money out. The monetary contagion could spread to other banks, and government, which kept its loot in banks, would be in trouble. Using its status as an agency of coercion, government intervened to stop the redemption while keeping the banks in business.” (10/26/26)
- Liberalism Is for Ordinary People
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri“We need to get better at describing our goals in these terms. My instinct, even now, is to say that the goal of liberalism is to produce an open society, to encourage mutual enrichment and mutual support under conditions of freedom. But we need to be able to paint a picture like the above, to say what these abstractions mean for the people who live where the factory opens, what it means to the local kids when a library opens up where there wasn’t one before.” (10/26/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-is-for-ordinary-people/
- How Israel Used AI to Relentlessly Murder Palestinian Journalists and Their Families in Their Homes
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andy Worthington“Under international humanitarian law, as most noticeably enshrined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, ‘Civilian journalists engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected as long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities.’ (emphasis added). The State of Israel, however, has nothing but contempt for international humanitarian law. As far as they are concerned, everyone who works for a media outlet that is, in any way, aligned with the military wing of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other militant faction in Gaza, is a terrorist, and can be targeted and killed, and anyone who works as a journalist but has previously had any suspected involvement with any of these military factions in any kind of capacity can also be targeted and killed.” (10/26/26)
- Parents shouldn’t need Congress to see their children’s school curriculum
Source: Fox News
by David L Bernstein“Philadelphia parents noticed troubling signs in their children’s social studies curriculum and asked to see all the materials. They couldn’t get them. Now those materials have been brought to light in a congressional investigation. A new majority staff report from the House Education and Workforce Committee documents how a small group of school personnel turned Philadelphia’s social studies curriculum into a political platform for extremist causes. When those parents approached my organization, the North American Values Institute (NAVI), asking for help, we tried to find out what the district was teaching but we also hit a wall. Eventually, a teacher shared the curriculum with us with considerable trepidation. She asked that we protect her anonymity. That alone should give us pause: A teacher feared sharing public school instructional materials with people seeking to understand what children were learning.” (10/26/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/parents-shouldnt-need-help-congress-see-children-school-curriculum
- Trump Exempts Some Canadian Products From Section 338 Tariffs—But His Illegal Trade War Continues
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“In addition to illegally usurping congressional power over taxation, the Trump trade war against Canada damages our economy and poisons relations with a key ally. Courts should strike it down, just as they did with the IEEPA tariffs and the more recent Section 122 tariffs. They should also invalidated the massive Section 301 ‘forced labor’ tariffs, which have been challenged in three cases currently before the US Court of International Trade.” (10/25/26)
- Arms Control, Not Ukraine, Should be on the Superpowers’ Agenda
Source: CounterPunch
by Imran Khalid“Asked at the White House whether he would sit down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next month’s APEC summit in Shenzhen, Donald Trump steered the conversation from Ukraine to warheads. ‘We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,’ he said. Russia, he added, ‘has been fine on Ukraine.’ In the same exchange he suggested it was time for someone other than Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate for Kyiv. Two proposals now ride on one invitation.” (10/26/26)
- The Grindhouse is the Opera of the Oppressed
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid“The American grindhouse has long been a playground for fomenting radical notions among thrill seeking proles with a few bucks to spare and a taste for something right to the point. The high-brow critics call this exploitation cinema and wag their bony fingers at such fare for indulging in spectacle and bad taste and they aren’t totally wrong. The problem is that modern late-capitalist civilization has reduced us all to a slumbering horde of flesh-eating zombies and the spectacle of ‘bad taste’ or transgressing our prescribed bourgeoise sensibilities is the only thing that will ever wake us. I know because it has before and not that long ago. The neon bathed grindhouses of pre-Giuliani Time Square achieved this goal with a rash of garish subcultural revolutions while Godard sold out and every new wave became assimilated into Spielbergian Hollywood dreck.” (10/25/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-grindhouse-is-opera-of-oppressed.html
- Taking Our Country Back
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon“Much like the phrase ‘will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood,’ the phrase ‘we’re taking our country back’ is an interesting one for its implications. It presupposes 1) there is a group collectively understood as ‘we’; 2) this group once had possession of the United States; 3) this group no longer has possession of the United States; 4) because it was taken away by another group; and 5) it must be taken back. This is all interesting stuff for sure, especially when one considers that the ‘we’ implicit in the phrase is, if you interrogate it long enough, white people—specifically white Christian people, specifically white Christian men, specifically wealthy white Christian men. Especially when one considers that this group, as a matter of political and institutional reality, is the most over-represented, over-coddled, over-defended, and over-privileged group in the nation, maybe in human history. ” (10/25/26)
- Question Before Los Angeles Not Whether to Have a Socialist Mayor, Just Which One
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson“The media coverage of the contest between incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, is in one respect surprising. That a mayoral contest, which may result in Bass’s ouster, in America’s second-largest metropolis has drawn widespread coverage is no surprise, particularly since Raman’s membership in the Democratic Socialists of America appears to make the election one more test of the extent of socialism’s rise, particularly in urban America. But that the coverage has often focused on the internal divisions within DSA between those locals that prioritize the kinds of mass outreach inherent in electoral politics, and other locals and the organization’s national committee, which have a more sectarian focus on ideological purity, is indeed surprising, at least in publications that hardly qualify as ‘left’. ” (10/26/26)
- When Vaccine Injury Research Becomes Political, Patients Disappear
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Brianne Dressen“For years, people experiencing serious health problems due to Covid vaccination have asked for something fundamental: rigorous scientific investigation into what happened to them, why it happened, and what might help. Many have spent years seeking answers through a fragmented healthcare system, encountering clinicians unfamiliar with their symptoms, struggling to access appropriate evaluation, and trying to find researchers willing to investigate their conditions. Now, the National Institutes of Health has announced a dedicated research effort intended to investigate health problems following vaccination and infection.” (10/25/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/when-vaccine-injury-research-becomes-political-patients-disappear/
- A Surveilled Country Is Not a Free Country
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Daniel Nuccio“If you currently live in the United States, I regret to inform you that you no longer live in a free country. You are no longer a free person. Actually, you haven’t been for quite some time. This may sound harsh with this being the year America celebrated her big Two-Five-Oh. But think about it. Think back to the last time you drove from your home to the grocery store. How many automatic license plate readers did you pass along the way? How many apps logged your route? What information did your car collect about you and anyone who may have accompanied you? When you finally arrived at the store, surely there were cameras, but were they simply there to help catch and deter shoplifters — maybe help police investigate a more serious crime on the off chance one were to occur? Or were those cameras serving other purposes?” (10/24/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-surveilled-country-is-not-a-free-country/
- The Other Nathan Bedford Forrest Election Tactic
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Few military figures come off quite so quotable as Confederate cavalry general (and Ku Klux Klan founder) Nathan Bedford Forrest, who said of winning battles, ‘I always make it a rule to get there first with the most men.’ That, of course, also constitutes the conventional rule for winning elections: Get there first (by motivating mail and ‘early’ voters as well as election day voters) with the most votes. … Republicans usually, but not always, get more credit for trying to suppress the Democrat vote than for trying to get out the Republican vote. As this year’s midterm elections approach, that tactic looks a lot like another Nathan Bedford Forrest aphorism. … ‘Whenever you see anything blue, shoot at it, and do all you can to keep up the scare.'” (10/25/26)
- Our Failed Constitution
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“The U.S. Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. It established boundaries beyond which the government may not venture, even when it invokes national security, public order, economic necessity, emergency or the will of a popular majority. Its purpose is not to make government more powerful but to keep the government off the people’s backs. By that measure, the American Constitution is a failure. Formally, the document physically survives, its ceremonies continue, and politicians swear their oaths to abide it. Yet functionally, the government it was designed to restrain has accumulated vast and totalitarian powers that its authors would never recognize.” (10/25/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/10/22/our-failed-constitution
- “You have this superpower” — how the left is weaponizing jury nullification
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley“Far-left professors have long advocated that juries use jury nullification. Georgetown Law professor and MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler has long advocated that Black jurors engage in nullification in cases involving Black defendants. … The problem of biased jurors has long plagued the legal system. It can work both ways in ignoring the law to refuse or secure convictions. Past cases involving President Trump and other Republicans have raised bias concerns over the jury pool in cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York City. But jury nullification is different; it is a direct assault on the very foundation of the American court system.” [editor’s note: Actually, it IS that very foundation; Turley just doesn’t much like mere peasants defying the lordly lawyer class – TLK] 10/24/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/6169577-jury-nullification-training-investigation/
- Is World Of Warcraft Evidence That Socialism Could Work?
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“One of the attractive features of World of Warcraft and its competitors is that the virtual world has been constructed to be a place that it is fun to do things in. The real world has not. Some things that need doing are things that people enjoy enough to do them even when not paid to and get done that way. My guess is that the vast majority of all novels written, including at least a few good ones, produce no income for their authors and are not expected to. That is a better model for Utopian socialism than WoW, since there is no market. Producers have some information about what consumers want but not weak incentives to produce it. I doubt however that all, or even most, of the world’s work can get done that way.” (10/23/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/is-world-of-warcraft-evidence-that
- Abdul El-Sayed, You’re No Jack Kennedy
Source: American Greatness
by Fred Fleitz“Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed recently tried to shut down questions about his family’s documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and his own reluctance to draw clear lines on radical Islamist networks by invoking John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign. Kennedy faced suspicion that, as a Catholic, he might answer to the Vatican rather than the Constitution. El-Sayed’s comparison does not hold. He is not being targeted simply for being Muslim. He is facing legitimate questions about national security, ideology, and fitness for the Senate that any candidate with this record would face. His refusal to answer them directly is the problem.” (10/23/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/23/abdul-el-sayed-youre-no-jack-kennedy/
- What does Hillbilly Elegy tell us about JD Vance’s daimon?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates“J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States, identifies himself as a post-liberal conservative. Since he is only a heartbeat away from becoming president, I have been thinking that I should read his latest book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, to see if it sheds any light on how he would be likely to use the powers of the presidency. However, I decided that I should read Hillbilly Elegy first – and am glad that I eventually managed to read it, a decade after its publication. I didn’t manage to get past the Introduction when I first attempted to read it a few years ago, but I now think it deserves its status as a best seller.” (10/25/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/10/what-does-hillbilly-elegy-tell-us-about.html
- They Wrecked Eisenhower’s World
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“Before D-Day, Eisenhower quietly composed a handwritten note taking personal blame for the operation’s failure—he was smart enough to know that success was uncertain and that he might not be in a position to talk about it afterward; Donald Trump, a dog-ate-my-homework guy if ever there were one, takes personal responsibility for precisely nothing. Eisenhower led Allied forces to victory in World War II and at the time of his retirement outranked George Washington (who received a posthumous promotion in 1976), but he was buried in a standard-issue soldier’s coffin and lay in state with no decorations on his field jacket except his two distinguished service medals and the Legion of Merit; Trump is a draft-dodging coward currently hard at work building himself a triumphal arch like some kind of limp Caesar.” (10/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/eisenhower-trump-hegseth-nato/
- Poem: There Are Polymarket Ads In Fortune Cookies
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“There are Polymarket ads in fortune cookies. / And pop-ups in our prayers. / There are paywalls on the monasteries, / and the monks are millionaires. / Well little Johnny’s gone to war. / He joined the McMarines. / The Iranians must be liberated / and blown to smithereens. / Light a candle in the chapel, John, / and pray to Western God, / and listen to the homily / the preacher wrote with Claude: / ‘Oh Western God, please guide our drones,’ the pious Johnny prayed. / ‘That we may safely bomb their schools / and turn their children gray.’ / The candle disappeared from sight / a minute into Johnny’s prayer, / and was replaced with hologram ads / for DraftKings and Wayfair.” (10/25/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/25/there-are-polymarket-ads-in-fortune-cookies/
- Trump claims we’ve beaten Iran. But US isn’t close to victory
Source: USA Today
by Daniel R DePetris“Serving as the world’s policeman in a highly contested environment like the strait is a resource-intensive mission even for the U.S. Navy – one that involves deploying significant air platforms, air defense systems and ships on a continuous basis to perform a variety of tasks, from coordinating sea lanes and protecting vessels from Iranian attacks to ensuring search-and-rescue assets are available if ships are disabled. The U.S. military is fully capable of doing this work, but stretched out over an indefinite period of time, the mission will exacerbate the depletion of precision-guided munitions the Pentagon needs for other potential conflicts.” (10/23/26)
- AI hasn’t replaced humans entirely; employers are still betting on college degrees
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Kent Ingle“The current narrative would have you believe that higher education is a dying institution. Experts consistently claim that a four-year degree is no longer worth the investment, warning that artificial intelligence (AI) is on the verge of rendering human labor obsolete. The prevailing message dictates that machines will soon dominate the workforce, leaving the next generation with no viable career paths. But a recent Gallup poll reveals a contrasting reality. While public anxiety is high, the job market tells a different story. According to a recent Gallup study, a staggering 80% of employers prefer to hire candidates with a college degree, even for roles that do not explicitly require one. Furthermore, six in 10 employers express a high level of confidence in higher education. While public trust in institutions has undeniably plummeted, the people actually handing out paychecks still find immense value in the university system.” (10/24/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ai-replaced-humans-employers-college-degrees
- Peter Pan Tariffs for Companies that Never Grow Up
Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness & David J Hebert“Of all the arguments for protectionism, the infant industry argument probably has the strongest theoretical appeal. By protecting a new industry from its more developed foreign competition, the story goes, tariffs give domestic producers the time to grow, learn, and become efficient enough to stand on their own. Domestic consumers feel the short-term pains of higher prices, but they enjoy the long-term gains of job growth and lower prices as the new industry blossoms. … When Hamilton made this claim in 1791, his argument may have seemed suitable for a new nation seeking to firm up its economy and security against established European powers. … Nearly 250 years later, those same infants apparently have yet to advance into adulthood.” (10/23/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/23/peter-pan-tariffs-for-companies-that-never-grow-up/
- Elections in four nations highlight role of rule of law
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Multiple annual measures of political openness and the rule of law have found both in global decline in recent years. The latest Rule of Law Index, released by the World Justice Project (WJP) Wednesday, underscores this democratic recession. As checks and balances on governments have weakened, authoritarianism has ‘become entrenched’, the nonprofit noted. This, in turn, has constricted freedom of expression, association, and civic participation in about two-thirds of the 143 countries assessed. But there are also positive glimmers: The share of countries registering decline dropped from 68% in 2025 to 62% this year. And access to and affordability of civil justice have improved. Perhaps more significant, the WJP’s findings reaffirm the robust link between transparent, consistent rule of law and a key dimension of citizen well-being – economic prosperity.” (10/23/26)
- New Mexico’s $25 billion verdict against Meta is fundamentally about speech
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Trace Mitchell“Most coverage calls it a privacy case. But a jury judged whether Facebook’s moderation claims were true, creating a blueprint for policing moderation.” (10/23/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/new-mexicos-25-billion-verdict-against-meta-fundamentally-about-speech
- Trump is doing everything he can to shake down voters ahead of the midterms
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Robin Abcarian“The end of the Trump era is in sight. … But we also know that Trump will never go gently. This is not conjecture. We already have proof that Trump is incapable of accepting defeat, that he is not above trying to cheat to get what he wants and that he is perfectly willing to sit back and watch a violent mob try to overturn election results he didn’t like. The Washington Post reported last week that a small, nonpartisan group of current and former U.S. national security officials ‘motivated by a growing sense of alarm’ has been quietly advising state and federal lawmakers on how to prepare for Trump administration interference with the midterm elections. It’s not just security officials. Most of the country is worried.” (10/25/26)
- The Greatest Little Town You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Source: Liberalism.org
by David T Beito“It is doubtful that any other American small town has contributed so much to the advancement of human freedom during the twentieth century as Mound Bayou. Without it, such civil rights icons as Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, and possibly Rosa Parks might have remained invisible to history. Evers and Hamer both lived and worked in Mound Bayou during the early 1950s, and as we shall see, Parks’s story intersects with it as well. … One precondition of Mound Bayou’s success as an outpost for free expression was a political environment that encouraged business ownership and law and order. In this respect, the founders of the community shared the same view as their ally Booker T. Washington, who argued that economic power provided the most secure foundation for the protection of individual rights.” (10/23/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-greatest-little-town-you-ve-probably-never-heard-of
- Sumner’s Worries Should Be Our Worries Too
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“We need not agree with every detail to see what Sumner was getting at. Reality is real; everything is something specific; A is A. To live properly—life is conditional—we must understand the facts. Further, people differ in intelligence, talents, preferences, and predispositions. That’s the way it is. The behaviorist delusion that all individuals are essentially the same and could achieve anything given the right environment is balderdash.” (10/23/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-sumners-worries-should-be-our
- Forget the riots; France’s downfall will come from its completely broken finances
Source: New York Post
by Dominic Green“The English say all bad ideas come from France, but that is unfair to the Germans. The scenes of riot and destruction from France may arise from our Gallic friends’ particular circumstances and peculiar habits, but they reflect Europe’s general malaise — one to which the United States is not immune. The ‘French intifada’ is overthrowing the icons of France. The images are as memorable as the menu at Maxim’s restaurant. A statue of Joan of Arc is defiled with the Palestinian flag. A bust of Marianne, the icon of the French Revolution, is cast to the ground in the trashed city hall of Marseilles. The 19th-century town hall of Limoges goes up in flames. The statistics are as stunning as Maxim’s prices.” (10/24/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/24/opinion/forget-the-riots-frances-finances-will-be-its-downfall/
- Jared Kushner’s Middle Eastern Spoils System
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri“We often talk about how much worse the second term has been, and it has been worse. But that is not because they were just innocent men in the first term—their position was simply weaker, then. They were complete outsiders to the practice of politics and had to rely on personnel that did not share their objectives or methods. They began hollowing out that institutional resistance and building relationships that would give them a freer hand. That began right away, in 2017, with things like Kushner’s Dubai slush fund. It is a cliché to note that the abuses of empire frequently end up coming home. What we see in the Trump family instead is decades of cozying up to Gulf ‘monarchies’ and dictatorships coming home. Every ‘common form of Gulf Arab corruption’ is on display in both terms of the Trump administration, and then some.” (10/23/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/jared-kushners-middle-eastern-spoils-system/
- How Britain Lost Its Energy Advantage
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sebastian Charleton“Britain was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution—where cheap, abundant coal fuelled the inventions that built the modern world. Those breakthroughs—railways, modern medicine and electricity—transformed humanity. But we often forget that it was energy, our ability to produce it and (crucially) to store it, that made all of this possible. Yet despite this proud history as the original energy superpower, modern Britain is anything but: it is burdened by crumbling infrastructure, a sclerotic planning system and skyrocketing bills. Central to these energy challenges is our energy insecurity.” (10/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/how-britain-lost-its-energy-advantage/
- Democrats Need Both Subpoenas and Supply
Source: The UnPopulist
by Gary Winslett“In the lead-up to the midterms, Democrats have begun to fuse their messaging on the cost of living with a focus on corruption. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went so far as to argue that the two reinforce each other. Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, even directly said ‘corruption is why costs are so high.’ It isn’t hard to see why the party wants to talk about both at the same time. As poll after poll has shown, the cost of living is voters’ top concern. Simultaneously, 89% of Americans say that government corruption is widespread. And the Trump administration in particular is astoundingly, breathtakingly corrupt. If Democrats take the House or Senate, they should aggressively investigate the Trump administration’s many misdeeds. But it is also important that Democrats not trick themselves into thinking that focusing on corruption is an adequate solution to lowering costs.” (10/23/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/democrats-need-both-subpoenas-and
- What Is It?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“There’s this notion that in France, at least, violent protests are just a part of French culture. A culture warped by the disastrous French Revolution centuries ago? My bet is that, if we inquired deeper, we’d discover that this is not exactly so. That certain groups push violent protest every now and then for reasons of political goals that are not about either social justice or liberty. We in America, who have been blessed with the freest society on the planet, are not quite as prone as Europeans to the vice of violent protest. But we are not immune, and we must start taking virtue — responsible self-government — seriously. Again.” (10/23/26)
- To End Iran War, US Must Understand Tehran’s Perspective
Source: Center for International Policy
by Sina Toossi“The war between the United States and Iran persists in a dangerous strategic stalemate. As Washington maintains a punishing economic and maritime blockade, Tehran continues to restrict passage through the Strait of Hormuz, imposing mounting costs on the United States, its allies, and the global economy. Neither side appears prepared to concede. The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft carrier strike group to the region, while the Trump administration is reportedly considering strikes against Iranian nuclear and energy infrastructure, potentially using the GBU-43/B bomb, known as ‘the mother of all bombs’. Both moves support the possibility of the United States attempting to break this stalemate through force. Iran, meanwhile, has in recent weeks intensified attacks on commercial vessels attempting to transit Hormuz outside its designated route, with strikes becoming more frequent and destructive. Washington appears to be continuing to misread the Iran it is confronting.” (10/24/26)
https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/war-has-changed-tehran-washington-should-take-notice/
- My Musk Problem And Ours
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“I haven’t written much about Elon Musk these past few years. I’m no expert in rocket science, or in cars of any kind. I tended to think of him as a classic robber-baron type, an American immigrant of excessive energy, pragmatism, and nerve. I watched the video of the flying car the other day and it was as mind-blowing as that now routinely re-captured rocket. But genius and character are not often aligned, and he is becoming, it seems to me, dangerous to our democracy and the world.” (10/23/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/my-musk-problem-and-ours
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/26/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Case for Christian Nationalism Discussion: Cultural Christo-Authoritarianism (pt. 7).” (10/26/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/26/26
Source: The Dispatch
“A Leader Doth Not a Statesman Make | Interview: Steven B. Smith.” (10/26/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/a-leader-doth-not-a-statesman-make-interview-steven-b-smith/
- Free Talk Live, 10/25/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Is voting pointless? :: Tim in FL calls and talks about death :: Dying :: Dave Ridley calls about a religious lawsuit against Dover NH :: Property taxes :: NHcornerstone.org :: Film the authorities when they harass you! :: Expatriation laws :: Sarah in NM calls about mail in ballots being smeared with fentanyl :: Skeeter calls to accuse and project :: Taxation is (not?) theft :: Should kids be educated? :: David in NM calls to educate us on how to end a call :: I love you, bye :: 2026-10-25 :: Hosts: Stu, Mr. Penguin, Mark Edge.” (10/25/26)
- Zooming In, 10/25/26
Source: The UnPopulist
“Liberals Need to Live Their Creed: A Conversation Between Jonathan Rauch and Alexandre Lefebvre.” (10/25/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-need-to-live-their-creed
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/25/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Report: Netanyahu Clashes With IDF Chief Over Iran, Saudi Airstrikes Kill 17 Civilians, and More.” (10/25/26)
- Evil Heaton “Fixes” Gerrymandering
Source: Reason
“A congressional guide to staying in power.” (10/25/26)
https://reason.com/video/2026/10/25/evil-heaton-fixes-gerrymandering/
- Unattended Baggage, episode 360
Source: Unattended Baggage
“To shreds, you say?” (10/24/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-360-to-shreds-you-say
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/24/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Mises Caucus being dishonest and manipulative AGAIN.” [editor’s note: “Again?” I’d say the correct term is “continuously” – TLK] (10/24/26)
- Free Talk Live, 10/24/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Dave Ridley calls about the Hugging Face attack :: NickBostrom.com :: NH rules ‘no more student IDs for voting’ :: Technology Support Office :: EU worsens data laws :: Michael in TX calls about police abuses of power :: Sarah gets yelled at by Nobody :: ‘heat ray’ may be used by CBP at southern border :: Skeeter gets yelled at by Nobody :: 2026-10-24 :: Hosts: Stu, Riley O’Bill, Nobody.” (10/24/26)
- Reason Interview: Ted Brown
Source: Reason
“Could a Libertarian Swing the Texas Senate Race?” (10/23/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/23/could-a-libertarian-swing-the-texas-senate-race/
- Half the Answer, episode 110
Source: Liberal Currents
“What a Future with Fewer Vehicles Will Look Like.” (10/23/26)
- Anarcho Agenda, episode 152
Source: Anarcho Agenda
“They want you fighting each other so they can keep running things.” (10/23/26)
- Counterpunch Radio, 10/23/26
Source: CounterPunch
“Unphazed w/ Nasser Mashni of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.” (10/23/26)
- Serious Trouble, 10/23/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“‘Esquire’ Is My Middle Name.” (10/23/26)
- The Illegal News with Sarah Longwell, 10/24/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s $10 Billion BBC Lawsuit Just Backfired (w/ Andrew Weissmann).” (10/24/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/23/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“More War With Iran? Prepare For Even Higher Prices.” (10/23/26)
- The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 10/23/26
Source: The New Republic
“Dimwit Trump Praise of Vile Ramaswamy Ad Backfires as GOP Panic Erupts.” (10/23/26)
- Nonzero, 10/23/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Humanity: An Earth’s-Eye View | Robert Wright & Boris Shoshitaishvili.” (10/23/26)
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 692
Source: Freakonomics
“What Will A.I. Do to (and for) Human Creativity?” (10/23/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-will-a-i-do-to-and-for-human-creativity/
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 10/23/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Weirdumentary: Exploring the 1970s Strange Documentary Boom w/ Gary D. Rhodes.” (10/23/26)